Was Krishna unfair and biased in the way that he dealt between the Pandavas and Kauravas? Were his war ethics, which on a number of occasions involved a disregard for the pre-ordained rules of warfare, justifiable? These are common questions that are brought up against Shri Krishna. How can such incidents be explained?
As the international controversy and debate surrounding the Big Brother anti-Indian racism continues it is often forgotten that it was a person from India who actually invented and coined the concept of “Big Brother” in the first place. Eric Arthur Blair, better known by the penname George Orwell, was an Anglo-Indian author born in 1903, India. It was in his last and most famous book Nineteen Eighty-Four that he created “Big Brother”. It was the book that finally made him famous but unfortunately he was to die only a year later aged only 46.
Karma and reincarnation are two major teachings that characterise Hinduism. Sometimes these doctrines are discredited as promoting a cold indifference to the suffering of others, by encouraging the view that people undergoing hardships are being punished for their own misdeeds; therefore do not deserve to be helped. In actual fact, the majority of Hindus do not subscribe to such a fatalistic view of karma.
To indulge in behaviour that we outwardly condemn is very common in this day and age. In many cases, people do this without even realising the contradiction and hypocrisy.No doubt, all of us who witnessed the callous bullying of Shilpa Shetty at the hand of the motley trio of ‘chavettes’ in the Big Brother house in the past weeks were outraged by the unprovoked cruelty and clear xenophobia.
What is particularly surprising is that the worst bullying and bigotry was in fact displayed by a young lady who was at the time a figurehead for an anti-bullying campaign, and herself a victim of bullying in the past.
Having spoken about Hinduism in front of a wide variety of audiences; one of the most common questions I get asked is “Why do Hindus worship cows?” Be it eight-year-old kids or schoolteachers, there is a fascination with Hinduism and the holy cow. Sometimes the question is asked in a mocking tone, while at other times there appears to be a genuine desire to get an insight into the subject of cows in Hinduism.
Hindus organisations across Europe are starting a campaign to defeat German-led efforts for a Europe wide ban on the use of the swastika. If it comes into force, this would see a complete ban on the use of the symbol in all European Union member states.The proposed ban is obviously aimed at the Nazi use of the symbol. But the Nazis were not the only ones who used the swastika, nor does the symbol mean the same thing for all its users. In many cultures, ancient as well as modern, the swastika has been used as a peaceful symbol of good luck, prosperity and divine beneficence.
Jijabai was the mother of Shivaji, one of the most famous and successful Hindu rulers of all time. The life story of Jijabai, is no less inspiring than that of her prodigal son, and takes a proud place in the history of the Hindu people.Jijabai’s father, Lakhuji Jadhav Rao, was an important leader serving under the Muslim Nizamshahi administration. During those days, many Hindu leaders of that region were serving under the Nizam. Their service had small armies of their own and had obtained lands, money and status. But they hated one another and were always trying to increase their power and prestige at each other’s expense.
The year 2007 has started with the world’s largest and greatest religious gathering in the world…The Kumbh Mela.Millions of Hindu pilgrims travel to one of the specific holy locations in India four times every twelve years. The festival lasts ove-r a month and sees pilgrims taking part in daily spiritual rituals such as bathing in holy waters as a method of body purification.
The pilgrimage this year is called the ‘Ardh’ (half) Kumbh Mela as we are in the sixth year of the twelve-year cycle. Each twelve-year cycle consists of one ‘Maha’ or ‘great’ Kumbh Mela. In the year of 2001, records were smashed as it was reported over 100 million people attended, making it the largest gathering of human beings for a single purpose. The gathering was so large it was seen and photographed from space via a high-resolution satellite.
Recently, there have been a large number of reports on the growing trend of ‘Temple hair extensions’ among women and men in western countries, particularly amongst film stars, musicians and other celebrities.‘Temple hair extensions’ are so called because the hair used to make the hair extensions is believed to have come from the compounds of the Tirumala temple devoted to Lord Venkateswara in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. At the temple, it is common for devotees to donate their hair as an offering to Lord Venkateswara, as a symbolic sacrifice of the ego.
It has often been said that the ‘pen is mightier than the sword’. However throughout most of history this has never really been the case. However today for perhaps the first time in human history, the pen really is mightier than the sword. David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastra) explains why, in this scintillating essay.
